Learn to talk about your city with video: مَدِينَة مَرْيَم

Is there a school in your town? A church or mosque? Maybe a factory, too? Learn to say some basic things about your city by watching a simple story video by Nadia Selim, entitled مدينة مرْيمmadiinat maryam ‘Maryam’s city’. This video is ideal for someone who has just worked through the Bite-Size Arabic book. In this article I present the vocabulary used in this video. Look here for supplementary information on other videos in this series.

The video is available both here on her Arabic with Nadia website and here on YouTube. Here is the video:

In the following, I’ll guide you through vocabulary used in this video, by category.

Prepositions

Here are all of the prepositions used in this video.

مَعَ

أَمام

بِجانِب

maʕa

’amaam

bi jaanib

‘with’

‘in front of’

‘next to’

فِي

عَلى

fii

ʕalaa

‘in’

‘on’

‘There is’

You are probably already familiar with the Arabic word هناكhunaaka, meaning ‘there’. This word can also be used to mean ‘there is’ or ‘there are’, as in these examples:

هُناكَ مَدْرَسة في مَدِينَتي.

hunaaka madrasa fii madiinat-ii.

‘There is a school in my city.’

هُناكَ سَيّارات كَثِيرة في الْشّارِع.

hunaaka sayyaaraat kathiira fii sh-shaariʕ.

‘There are many cars in the street.’

Places

Maryam lives in Suez, which is a city in the north of Egypt:

الْسُّوَيْس

مَدِينة

’as-suways

madiina

‘Suez’

‘city’

Here is a list of other words for places mentioned in this video:

كَنِيسة

مَسْجِد

بَحْر

kaniisa

masjid

baḥr

‘church’

‘mosque’

‘sea’

شارِع

جَبَل

مَدْرَسة

shaariʕ

jabal

madrasa

‘street’

‘montain’

‘school’

مَصْنَع

مُسْتَشْفى

بَنْك

maṣnaʕ

mustashfaa

bank

‘factory’

‘hospital’

‘bank’

وَسَط الْمَدِينة

وَسَط

wasaṭ il-madiina

wasaṭ

‘downtown, city center’

‘center, middle’

Other nouns

حارِس

عائِلة

شَجَر

ḥaaris

ʕaa’ila

shajar

‘guard’

‘family’

‘trees’ (mass noun)

أَصْدِقاء

’aṣdiqaah’

‘friends’

Adjectives

كَبِير

صَغِير

كَثِير

kabiir

ṣaghiir

kathiir

‘large, big’

‘small, little’

‘much, many’

بَعِيد عَنْ

قَرِيب مِنْ

baʕiid ʕan

qariib min

‘far from’

‘close to’

Odds and ends

مَعَ الْسّلامة

أَيْضًا

أَعِيش

maʕa s-salaama

’ayḍan

’aʕiish

‘goodbye’

‘also, too’

‘I live’

What next?

Once you have mastered these words, why not check out some of the other useful learning materials on the Arabic with Nadia website?